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At 3:15 Scott Horton, Contributing Editor – Harper’s Magazine to discuss John Yoo.
We’ll be continuing our coverage from yesterday regarding the ongoing protest at torture memoist John Yoo’s classroom at UC-Berkeley.
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Ambassadorships for Sale
By Scott Horton, Harper’s, 29.Jul.09
…As the Los Angeles Times noted in a recent editorial, the United States is the only major country that regularly hands out choice ambassadorships as a favor for campaign funding bundlers. The process cheapens our diplomatic relations and sends a bad message to the states to which these ambassadors are sent. And it’s getting cruder and greedier. A cynic studying the latest batch of nominees might conclude that the price of an ambassadorship has soared from roughly $200,000 under the Rovian regime to $500,000 under Rahm Emanuel.
Under Barack Obama, the process of political payoff through ambassadorial appointments has matched and appears poised to exceed the already extremely abusive system that Karl Rove put in place under the Bush Administration. In his first six months, Obama has forwarded 58 ambassadorial nominees to the Senate for confirmation. Retired career diplomat Dennis Jett reports in the Daily Beast that 32 of these nominees—55% of the total—are political appointees.
Political appointees are not per se objectionable. … -
Second-Tier Countries Get Stronger U.S. Envoys
by Leslie Campbell, Embassy Magazine, 12.Aug.09
Should Canadians be surprised, maybe even offended, that only one senator managed to show up for the Aug. 5 hearing to examine the nomination of Chicago native and Democratic Party fundraiser David Jacobson to be ambassador to Canada? Surprised no, offended, yes.
Some may argue that the apparent apathy toward President Obama’s choice for envoy to Canada is a sign of the strong, comfortable relationship between the countries and an indication of complete Senate confidence in the president’s pick.
Unfortunately, the more likely explanation is that senators don’t think it matters much who is sent to Canada, as opposed to important countries like Japan, China, India and Brazil. … Even second-tier countries get better treatment. …
While it’s not news that Canada doesn’t register in Congress, it’s unfortunate that when it comes to ambassadors, President Obama doesn’t put Canada in the same category as other countries with which the U.S. has important strategic interests—the world’s largest trade relationship notwithstanding. - Yoo for the Defense
By Scott Horton, Harper’s, 30.Jan.09
Yoo Returns to Berkeley
By Scott Horton, Harper’s, 17.Aug.09
…In the overall order of things, it’s good that the dean of a professional school stands up for a faculty member under broad public attack for unpopular views. It’s right to insist on proper process and to oppose a rush to judgment, even though it’s ironic in this case, since Yoo’s offenses include some measure of just that. Academic freedom is important, particularly for a university, and a faculty member should not be expelled simply because of public agitation.
But Dean Edley’s remarks—brief as they are—reflect a refusal to grapple with some serious issues. Edley states that “no law enforcement or even bar proceedings have been initiated,” which is flatly false. In fact, Yoo is the subject of a pending criminal investigation in Spain’s Audiencia Nacional, where investigators are probing his role in a process that led to the torture of five Spanish subjects. In a preliminary ruling, the court found that culpability for these crimes lies principally with the “intellectual authors” of the torture program, and particularly the lawyers who gave permission for it. Does Dean Edley think the university should be oblivious to foreign legal proceedings or to crimes committed against foreigners? …
At 3:30 Michelle Rainey returns with an update regarding the fate of the BC3
HEALTH: Medical marijuana
Marijuana’s journey to legal health treatment: the Canadian experience
Mon.17.Aug.09
…Terrence Parker — was the one that changed everything.The Toronto man had been charged with pot possession many times, as he made no secret of using it to control his epileptic seizures. But his lawyers used a different defence for his 1996 charges. This time, they said the charges violated Parker’s charter rights.
The defence worked. On Dec. 10, 1997, a judge ruled that people must be able to access necessary medical treatment without fear of arrest. Parker became the first Canadian to be exempted from further prosecution for either possession or cultivation of marijuana. A subsequent appeal upheld the lower court ruling. Justice Mark Rosenberg of the Ontario Court of Appeal wrote that “forcing Parker to choose between his health and imprisonment violates his right to liberty and security of the person.”
Still, the legal evolution of medical marijuana had more distance to go. There were no guidelines on how the few Canadians who’d been given an exemption from Canada’s marijuana possession laws were supposed to get their drug — which, after all, was still illegal to distribute. …
After four years of politically charged legal wrangling, two employees of Canada’s so-called “Prince of Pot” have avoided prison for their roles in exporting marijuana seeds to the U.S. by mail-order.
Employees of Canada’s ‘Prince of Pot’ get probation, ending years of legal wrangling
By Ian Ith, Seattle Times staff reporter
After four years of politically charged legal wrangling, two employees of Canada’s so-called “Prince of Pot” have avoided prison for their roles in exporting marijuana seeds to the U.S. by mail-order.The plea deal, finalized on Friday, sets the stage for the Prince of Pot himself, Marc Emery, to surrender to U.S. authorities later this year to face prison time. That will close the long-running, high-profile case that had pitted some of Canada’s most vocal marijuana activists against the Justice Department in a war of words.
U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez accepted the deal for Michelle Rainey, 38, and Gregory Williams, 54, to be sentenced to two years of probation for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. Both may return to Canada, where they remain active in the marijuana-legalization movement.
Rainey and Williams were indicted along with Emery in 2005 on drug and money-laundering charges for running a lucrative mail-order pot-seed business out of Emery’s Vancouver book-and-paraphernalia shop that doubled as headquarters for British Columbia’s Marijuana Party. Emery claimed to have sold some 4 million pot seeds, most to customers in the United States.
Williams took phone orders, and Rainey helped pack up the seeds and ship them. … Emery remains outspoken that the charges stem from his activism having “insulted” the Bush administration.
“This is their revenge, but it will backfire on them, I’m convinced,” he said. “It’s all politically motivated. Only the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) denies that. To everyone else it’s patently obvious.”
Nonetheless, he said he was relieved prosecutors had backed off on his friends.
“I’m pleased they won’t be going to jail, and they’ll still be able to do their work in Canada,” he said.
Doctors weigh private role in Canadian health care
18 Aug 2009, CBC
Members of the Canadian Medical Association backed away from endorsing competition “to make the health care system more efficient” on Tuesday.
4 PM Sharon Salzberg is cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts.
A student of Buddhism since 1971, Sharon is one of America’s leading meditation authors, teachers & guiding meditation retreats worldwide since 1974:
- Sharon’s latest book is “The Kindness Handbook“, published by ‘Sounds True‘.
- She is also the author of: “The Force of Kindness“, published by Sounds True
- “Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience“, published by Riverhead Books
- “Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness“, published by Shambhala Publications.
For more information about Sharon or the Insight Meditation Society, please visit: Insight Meditation Society
Sharon Salzberg Special Offer package from Sounds True.
Working With Your Enemies
Sharon Salzberg, HuffPo, 1.Aug.08
Recently I led a workshop with my friend, Bob Thurman, on working with your enemies. The workshop was in Washington DC, which seems a particularly apt place to explore the consequences of being stuck in a tight worldview of “us” and “them”; many would say it is a notable spot to examine the corrosive effects of habitually relating through fear, anger, and alienation.
I started by telling a story about a time I was on a train going down the Hudson Valley to New York City, and found myself sitting between a woman having a moderately loud conversation on a cell phone, and a man growing increasingly agitated at the volume of her call. As the ride went on, accompanied by the steady sound of her voice and the minute details of her plans, he wiggled, and grunted, and muttered, then finally exploded. “You’re making too much noise!!” he yelled at the top of his lungs.
I looked over at him and thought, “Well, so are you!”
What came to my mind next was the quotation widely attributed to Albert Einstein, “The significant problems we face can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”
It takes strong insight and often a good deal of courage to break away from our habitual ways of looking at things, to be able to respond from a different place. …
At 4:30 Nick Reding was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, and received his B.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature from Northwestern University in 1994.
Nick has an MFA in Creative Writing from N.Y.U., where he was a University Fellow from 1995 til 1997. He lived in New York City for thirteen years, where he worked as a magazine editor, a graduate school professor, and a freelance writer.
Nick has written for Harper’s, Food and Wine, Outside, Fast Company, and Details. He lives with his wife and son in Saint Louis.
His first book, “The Last Cowboys at the End of the World“, was published by Crown in 2002. “Methland” is his second book.
MethLand: The Death and Life of an American Small Town
By Amy Lorentzen, The Canadian Press
…In “Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town,” Reding uses Oelwein, Iowa (population: 6,100) – but he stresses that the same story is unfolding in rural communities throughout the nation. The book has earned strong reviews and is drawing national attention to the issues behind meth’s status as the heartland’s drug of choice. … the author of a well-received book about methamphetamine’s grip on a small town, believes the drug is “only a symptom of a larger economic and ultimately political problem.”
“That problem is essentially that people can’t make money anymore to do the jobs that have kept places in the middle of the country going for a century,” he says during a telephone interview from his St. Louis home.
Meth “just sort of moves into the vacuum” as people struggle to earn a living now that farm and factory jobs have evaporated with the consolidation of the agriculture industry, he says. …
He says some people don’t want to talk about the area’s meth problem “any more than you would want to talk about … there being incest in the family.”
“I am not surprised by the collective denial that some of the people in the community have expressed,” Hallberg says. “If you did not work in the emergency room, if you did not work in the police department, if you were not with (human services), many things would seem normal and you would not be aware of the problem.”
Ultimately, Hallberg says, it’s more important to deal with meth’s victims and the town’s problems than debate the book’s merits.
At 5:30 Richard Koman ZDNet’s Government & Technology analyst will join us again to discuss the importance of privacy & free speech… & the impact upon honestly representative government.
Richard Koman is a lawyer & freelance writer based in Sonoma County, California & delivers news and analysis on IT and enterprise computing in city, state & federal government.
In 2003-04, Richard traveled to Uganda to set up the Uganda Digital Bookmobile, an on-demand printing operation for rural schools. He works on SiliconValleyWatcher, ZDNet blogs, and is a regular contributor to the O’Reilly Network.
- ‘Server in the Sky’: FBI international biometric db planned
Posted by Richard Koman @ January 14, 2008 - FBI building massive biometric database
Posted by Richard Koman @ December 24, 2007
The First Amendment rights of anonymous defamers
Richard Koman, ZDNet Government, August 20, 200
Yesterday I wrote that a Manhattan federal judge has ordered Google to tell supermodel Liskula Cohen the identity of the blogger behind the “Skanks of NYC” blog, which brands Cohen “a psychotic, lying, whoring, still going to clubs at her age, skank.” Now that that’s been done, Cohen plans to go ahead with a defamation suit against the woman.
Is this just Gawker-worthy gossip? Actually, no. The decision highlights a number of recent decisions on a critical Internet issue — when may a private litigant force third parties (ISPs or search engines) to strip anonymity from their users?
To be clear, this is a First Amendment issue.
…
An author’s decision to remain anonymous, like other decisions concerning omissions or additions to the content of a publication, is an aspect of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.
Balancing those First Amendment protections against the right of a plaintiff to remedy a defamation, where do courts draw the line in the Internet context? As far as I know, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Manhattan, has not held forth on this question. But just days ago the D.C. Circuit issued a major ruling, essentially upholding the 2005 Delaware Supreme Court decision of Doe v Cahill. …
As a technology writer since the mid-1980s, Richard Koman has documented the role of computing in the transformation of the graphic arts, the growth of the Web and the birth of the peer-to-peer phenomenon. He worked as a book and web editor for O’Reilly Media throughout the 1990s, editing several influential websites and numerous best-sellers. As a lawyer, as well as a tech writer, he brings a unique perspective to the blog’s intersection of law, government and technology.
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